Maryland's State Board of Education , in a move to apply tough academic standards on its children, has approved the first part of a new testing program. The education establishment thinks the tests are too hard.

• Beginning with the Class of 2004, students must pass ten rigorous exams at the end of English, math, science and history courses, mostly in the sophomore and junior years of high school.

• Children unable to pass the test can still graduate -- but with a lower grade of diploma.

• The Board is already expecting repeat rates of 50 percent in the first five operational years and 20 percent thereafter.
• The price of the reform could hit $23 million per year.

Reform advocates applaud Maryland's efforts, but are concerned that the education establishment has a history of sidetracking such reforms.

• They cite the demise of the $26 million California Learning Assessment System, which aimed to impose higher standards on that state's students.

• Then there was the widely-reported revision of Scholastic Aptitude Test scores in 1994 -- which masked the downward spiral in student scores beginning in 1964.

Maryland reformers are trying to combat what they see as the establishment answer to poor student scores: don't raise performance, lower the standards.

Source: Editorial, "Leading the Way to Better Schools," Investor's Business Daily, February 6, 1997.